Rango | D

While Rango boasts impressive animation, this unusual Western falls short in nearly every other aspect of cinema. Director Gore Verbinski's (the Pirates of the Caribbean series) first foray into animated features is mildly witty at its best and mind-numbingly dull at its worst.

Rango begins with an unnamed pet chameleon (Johnny Depp) being thrown from the back of his owner's car in the middle of the desert. After wandering through the desolate landscape, he comes upon a small Old West-style town inhabited by other anthropomorphic animals. There, the naïve lizard lies about being an expert gunslinger called Rango to impress the locals, but his bravado leads to a stand-off with a notorious posse. After running off the gang, purely through dumb luck, Rango is enlisted by a resident named Beans (Isla Fisher, Wedding Crashers) to solve the mystery of the town's dwindling water supply. This mission leads Rango into confrontation with a criminal family of moles, the cold-blooded outlaw Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy, Shaun of the Dead), and his own self-doubt.

Rango's faults greatly outweigh its strengths. John Logan's (Gladiator, The Last Samurai) screenplay is as dry and monotonous as its setting. Aside from Rango, who is given a few amusing one-liners, the other characters are given annoying, clichéd dialogue. The plot of Rango is painfully uninteresting, and has trouble keeping the tone of the film consistent. Near the end of the film, the story takes an unexpected and unneeded turn for the surreal, one that even in the realm of talking critters doesn't make sense. Verbinski's direction is nothing special and does nothing to enhance the feel of the movie.

Rango's voice acting is satisfactory, but most of the characters sound too generic or stereotypical — almost as if old Western sound clips were used. The real stand-out features of the film, however, are the visual effects. Rango has the distinction of being the first film to be completely animated by renowned VFX Company Industrial Light & Magic (the Star Wars series). For the most part, they do a spectacular job, with some of the best lighting and particle effects seen in an animated film to date. Some scenes, specifically the ones without talking animals, border on photorealism.

While interesting from a technical standpoint, Rango has virtually no other redeeming qualities. Its tedious plot, pedestrian direction and unoriginal characters do a disservice to the groundbreaking animation provided by ILM. In the end, Rango falls off its horse instead of riding off into the sunset.